Expert outreach

Wikimedia UK is working with scholarly societies and funding bodies to encourage experts to improve Wikipedia and its sister projects, and to help them engage and inform the widest possible public.

Many scholarly societies are, like Wikimedia UK, registered charities whose mission includes informing and educating the general public. These common goals are advanced with internal training events, publications and public events. This work complements WMUK's partnerships with galleries, libraries, archives and museums as well as its support for higher education.

Brochures

We are preparing print brochures to show researchers and public engagement professionals how Wikimedia can magnify the impact of their work. Improvements and suggestions are welcome.

• Wikimedia as a public engagement sex tool tool for scientists
• Wikimedia as a public engagement tool for the arts and humanities

Examples

This list includes collaborations with public outcomes; many more partnerships are presently being negotiated.

Medical Research Council

WMUK is running workshops with the Medical Research Council to train MRC staff and MRC-funded researchers to contribute to the Wikimedia projects.

The Institute of Physics

The WMUK collaboration with the Institute of Physics has so far produced a small training workshop at the IoP offices and a feature article for the Physics World magazine and site (free registration required).

Cancer Research UK

We have provided two events at the CRUK offices in London to train scientists and science communicators to improve Wikipedia articles related to cancer. They have formed a monthly Wikipedia group, who remain in touch with Wikimedia UK.

ARKive

In the Summer of 2011, Wikimedia UK collaborated with the charity Wildscreen to improve Wikipedia's articles on threatened species. This involved using some of the text content from Wildscreen's ARKive project on Wikipedia. There is still an opportunity to contribute to the project by improving target articles: see the project page.

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

A group of scientists at this genome research institute are Wikimedia UK volunteers, and have published a guide for expert contributors in PLoS Computational Biology. They have also taken part in training events for other scientists. They include Darren Logan and Alex Bateman, who have explained Wikipedia culture and policies in a Nature letter and article and, from Logan, a guest post to the Wellcome Trust blog (see below).

Conferences and presentations

WMUK trustees and other volunteers are using conferences and other events to address researchers:

• Andy Mabbett will speak at a meeting of the Theoretical Archaeology Group on "how archaeologists can use Wikipedia to disseminate their work to both specialist & popular audiences"
• Martin Poulter will present at a Social Media Lunch for scholarly societies in London, December 2011
• Darren Logan presented at an event for researchers at the International Institute for Environment and Development in November 2011, arguing that Wikipedia "provides experts an unprecedented opportunity to engage, educate and influence on a global scale."
• Martin Poulter spoke to researchers at an ESRC seminar on "Digital Policy: Connectivity, Creativity and Rights"
• Andy Mabbett used his talk at Library Camp UK in October to set the audience "homework" of creating an account on Wikipedia and improving a stub article.
• Mike Peel spoke at two sessions of the Science Online London (SOLO11) conference in September 2011
• Oliver Keyes, Tom Morris and Kim Bruning ran a stall for two days at the Charted Institute of Librarians and Information Professionals (CILIP) Umbrella conference in July 2011.
• Mike Peel spoke on the "Innovative Methods for Impact and Engagement" panel at the Investigating Academic Impact conference, June 2011.

Further reading

• Zoe Corbyn, The Guardian, Tuesday 29 March 2011 "Wikipedia wants more contributions from academics"

"One of the most rewarding aspects can be in helping shape the public image of their field, say contributors. For many subjects – including scholarly topics – it is very often Wikipedia pages that are the top hits on Google, and for scholars who want their field represented accurately or interestingly, contributing to Wikipedia can help."

• Eugenie Samuel Reich, Nature 11 May 2011 "Online reputations: Best face forward"

"The purpose of writing wasn't to promote my own work but a consequence was that a lot more people read my research articles."

• Darren Logan, Wellcome Trust Blog 18 May 2011 "Being a scientist in the age of Wikipedia"

"I request that the public fund my research through their tax and charitable contributions; in return I consider it my responsibility to provide them with accurate, up-to-date and free access to the scientific progress they pay for."

• Alex Bateman and Darren Logan, Nature 9 December 2010 "Time to underpin Wikipedia wisdom"

"Wikipedia's user-friendly global reach offers an unprecedented opportunity for public engagement with science. Scientists who receive public or charitable funding should therefore seize the opportunity to make sure that Wikipedia articles are understandable, scientifically accurate, well sourced and up-to-date."

Get in touch

Please contact Wikimedia UK if you would like to run a joint event or if you want a speaker or a guest article.

Call for volunteers

Wikimedia UK is seeking volunteers to give introductory talks, promote Wikimedia at conferences or deliver training. We can support travel and subsistence, and we can provide handouts and freebies to distribute. Drop a message to martin.poulterwikimedia.org.uk stating your username on Wikimedia projects, where you can travel to and any relevant background.